Bread is the most common and tradit

Bread is the most common and traditional foods around the world. But bread actually has close links with enzymes. For years, enzymes such as malt and fungal alpha-amylase have been used in bread making. Due to the changes in the baking industry and the ever-increasing demand for more natural products, enzymes have gained real importance in bread-making.

The dough for bread, rolls, buns, etc. consists of flour, water, yeast, salt and other ingredients such as sugar and fat. Flour consists of gluten, starch, non-starch polysaccharides, lipids, etc. When the dough is made, the yeast starts to work on the fermentable sugars, transforming them into alcohol and carbon dioxide, thus rising the dough.

In the beginning, the fermentation goes smoothly whether sugar has been added or not, because flour always contains a certain amount of fermentable sugar. But when this has been used up, the fermentation process will cease unless new supplies of sugar are made available to the yeast.

Amylases degrade starch and produce small dextrins for the yeast to act. Gluten is a combination of proteins, which form a large network during dough formation. This network holds the gas in dough proofing and baking. The strength of this network is very important for the quality of all bread raised by yeast. Enzymes such as proteases, xylanases and lipases directly or indirectly improve the strength of the gluten network and so improve the quality the bread.